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| Charlie McKittrick of TimeGiant |
January 7 2013 – One of T-Mak World’s Top 10 Indie Bands of 2012 took the stage at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on Friday January 4th to kick off our 2013 concert season. TimeGiant is the most covered Indie band on T-Mak World and we have praised this band and its music on many occasions. Not only do they play a classic rock sound that takes the best of the 70’s, they also have visceral energy on stage. Every time we have seen these guys play we see the same pattern of an audience being drawn in as if they were moths attracted to a light bulb. By the end of every TimeGiant set the attendees are dancing, singing and/or bouncing their head. Here is a band that belongs on much bigger stages and even arenas to bring their riff filled rock and roll to the masses.
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| TimeGiant January 2013 |
Tonight the band performed a mix of old and new with 2 very surprising omissions and 1 very welcome addition. The opening song of the night is the very Beatles-esque Hard Loving Woman which usually sets a great party tone. Although Hard Loving Woman is not one of the hardest songs from the band, it is always a crowd pleaser. The next two songs are some of the band’s harder blistering rock anthems – Blind and Farcaster. TimeGiant is a band of two faces (much like Zeppelin was) – they have their “softer” rhythm based radio friendly songs, and they have their hard rock face melters. Blind and Farcaster are perfectly paired together because they deliver a relentless hard rock attack which is what makes TimeGiant for us. The fourth song closes off the hard rock sandwich and it seems as if the song selection was quite deliberate – a couple of hard rocking tunes sandwiched between a couple of the softer tunes.
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| Ryan Watson and Tyrone Buccione of TimeGiant |
The second half of the set begins with an epic (albeit too short) drum solo from the band’s shirtless wonder. Charlie McKittrick clearly enters another dimension when the spotlight falls squarely on his shoulders and he wows the audience with his very impressive beating of the drum kit. The drum solo leads into a MAJOR surprise addition to the setlist – for the first time we have seen TimeGiant do a cover. These guys have talent so when they decide to tackle a cover they do it with style and go to the top of the rock mountain with none other than Led Zeppelin. The boys blast out Immigrant Song (one of Zep’s faster songs) and totally nail it. Although this is not the first time the band did this particular song it was the first time we saw them perform it, and we can say without a doubt they can leave the comfort zone of their own original songs and rock Zep with a fantastic energy and style. Well done!
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| Ryan Watson of TimeGiant |
Next up is a reworked version of one of the band’s classic tracks I Am The Fire. I am unsure why they are reworking excellent songs, but the new version does feature an wicked guitar solo in the middle which we really dig. Slowing things down the main set closes off with the sing along Candy From A Feather and includes the famous sax solo by lead singer/guitarist Tyrone Buccione who is a bona fide rock star in the making. Both bassist Patrick Wilken and guitarist Ryan Watson rock hard all night and I know these guys collectively are having a great time being on stage, and ensuring they that they leave a blazing trail when they play (including their epic song endings).
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| Pat Wilken of TimeGiant |
The night ends with a new song called “We Forgot The Reason” which the band decides to try out on the audience. We were surprised that the band did not include the very excellent Zenith in their setlist and even more surprised they omitted for the first time ever their anthem White Window. We did not believe we would see the day where TimeGiant did not play White Window but today was that day. In retrospect that is a great decision for a band that needs to expand its comfort zone and build its audience. These guys embraced a Zeppelin cover song and made it their own tonight while the drum solo once again became a focal point of the night.
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| TimeGiant at The Horseshoe January 2013 |
TimeGiant band continues Toronto’s hard rock legacy poised to take the throne from bands such as Rush, Max Webster, Neil Young, and in particular Triumph. They are certainly deserving of much bigger venues and audiences and think their next natural stage should be The Opera House or The Sound Academy (ideally opening up for the epic Michael White Led Zeppelin tribute shows which musically is a perfect fit for the band). We leave you with a YouTube recording of this gig (without the first and last songs).
Verdict: TimeGiant delivered one of their best gigs to date to a very packed Horseshoe tavern and filled downtown Toronto with sweet sounds of classic rock and electric guitars.
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| TimeGiant Live |
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Please, please, please mention it to Michael White.
The two bands they now seem to alternate are getting stale since they seem to do the same material each time. Time Giant seems to do these slots where they come on around 11:30. Sorry but a little late for this puppy.
Will do Jim. Not sure if Michael gets to decide openers or not but I will suggest it to him. The TimeGiant boys will be at the show this Friday as well to watch.